I was playing basketball alone and a high school kid joined me on the other end of the court. After a few minutes he came to my end and challenged me to a one-on-one game. I figured I would quickly beat him and go back to practicing. It would be easy and then he’d leave me alone. We played and I beat him 11-0.
He wanted a rematch though. I agreed. I’m not the type to refuse someone’s challenge.
This game was different though. I lost.
I went through the motions, coasting off my first easy victory. I thought that I had nothing to prove. I started off 7-0 but the teenager made a comeback and beat me 8-11. I was furious with myself. How was that even possible? Why was I angry if I had nothing to prove?
The kid left and went home, I stayed and dunked until my hands were sore to get out my frustration with myself. As I skated home, I started to reflect and this article was born.
There is always something to prove.
The kid took the win from me because he was willing and able to put in the required effort. I was not. He had beaten me at something that transcended basketball and that was why I was mad at myself. His win proved that, in that game, he was the better man at more than just basketball because we both wanted to win and he was willing and able to go through tremendous difficulty to win and I was not willing or able to do something incredibly easy to win. Mentally, I was comically weak, he was impressively strong. I had more talent, more skill, more knowledge, more experience and I still lost because the kid worked harder and wanted it more.
I reflected on what happened and I realized that I felt entitled to win the second game and I felt that I didn’t need to work for it after earning it the first time. That realization was profound to me.
It was not a conscious feeling. Like I said, I had to reflect to figure this out. This realization got me thinking; how often do we coast off of the victories earned from our past efforts and expect them to carry us forward to our next victory with less (or no) effort the second time around? How does this impact our goals and our success in life? How often do we fail to do the easy thing and forfeit our win (a sale, a job, etc.) to someone else?
A lot of people, especially from my generation, seem to have a pretty severe sense of entitlement. The harsh reality is that we are not entitled to much, if anything. Succeeding in the past does not entitle us to future success. We need to earn every success whether it is big or small, important or unimportant.
There’s always something to prove. Do it.
Featured photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels
